Boston needs more housing stock, and it needs it now.
That’s the gist of Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn‘s call for Mayor Michelle Wu to roll back the city’s inclusionary zoning requirements for new development. The threshold used to be 13% earmarked for affordable housing, which changed to 20% in 2024. Flynn says those requirements are causing housing production to hit the breaks, making affordability worse in the city.
He’s right.
Last year’s “A Home for Everyone” plan from the Healey administration called for adding at least 222,000 new, primarily year-round, housing units in Massachusetts between 2025 and 2035.
According to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities’ Housing Needs Assessment, Metro Boston needs a 7.5% to 10% increase in housing stock to keep up with demand. That’s roughly 140,000 to 180,000 new units by 2035.
We need to get shovels in the ground ASAP.
“Following several years of post-pandemic inflation, a high interest rate environment, rising construction costs and tariffs, I believe it is long past time for elected officials and leaders in our city and state to acknowledge the reality that while we do not control many of the big picture economic conditions, we should do everything we can within our power to make any adjustments that will help spur development of housing and affordable units in our city,” Flynn wrote in a letter to Mayor Michelle Wu and Chief of Planning Kairos Shen.
Wu understands big picture economic conditions. In an interview with WBUR she noted that the cost increase for White Stadium was due in part to tariffs, steel prices and general inflation. Those same factors could be expected to affect housing production as well. We need, therefore, to up the incentive to build in Boston.
The housing crisis is hardly new. Back in 2018, then-Mayor Marty Walsh joined 14 members of the Metro Mayors Coalition in announcing a housing production goal.
“We are at a pivotal time in Greater Boston as our economy continues to grow and thrive, and more people move to our communities. As the region grows, we must ensure our cities and towns keep up with the demand for affordable housing, ensuring families can stay in the communities they love,” said Walsh. “Last month I increased Boston’s housing goal from 53,000 to 69,000 new units of housing by 2030.”
And now we need140,000 to 180,000 new units by 2035.
Wu is taking steps to boost housing production, such as last year’s $110 million housing accelerator fund meant to support housing projects already greenlighted but lacking the financing to begin construction.
But the need for new housing is huge, and immediate.
“If we’re producing less housing we’re also getting less affordable units for working families. Some housing is better than no housing,” said Flynn.
It can only help the housing crisis if we increase the stock. If we build it, residents will come, grow communities and increase the tax base.
City Hall has got to love that.
